communal living

Can a $16 Billion Start-Up Make Kibbutz-Style Living Cool?

This morning, WeWork, the communal-office start-up currently valued at $16 billion, unveiled its latest play at world domination: WeLive, a communal-living company, that’s kind of like Soho House meets Airbnb meets a tricked-out Restoration Hardware storeroom, but for the Slack Set.

The first WeLive is located at 110 Wall Street. The 27-floor former office building, owned by the Rudin Management Company, features more than 200 units, from modest studios to spaces that accommodate four beds. (An existing WeWork occupies the lower floors.) There is a stunning shared kitchen; a tricked-out laundry room with a pool table and beer tap and, blessedly, Big Buck Hunter; a roof space; and a multi-purpose recreation area. Units start at around $1,375 a month, and come with amenities such as cable, Bose speakers, and Harry’s shave kits. As you might expect, there are planned happy hours and cooking classes, game nights and running clubs. The company’s founders, Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, envision WeLive less as a modest apartment or a corporate hotel, perhaps, than a platform for ambitious and creative people looking for community and unmoored by geography. And given the cost of a hotel in New York City these days, they may have a sizable audience on their hands. (A second location is also being tested out in Crystal City, outside Washington, D.C.)

Neumann and McKelvey are particularly disposed to this way of living. The former spent time on a kibbutz in Israel; the latter grew up in a communal arrangement in Oregon. WeLive, they contend, has been a part of their plans since they first launched WeWork some six years ago.

McKelvey offered Vanity Fair an exclusive tour of the location, and provided insight into everything from the design to the company’s long-term goals for the business.